Cultivating Immortality, Starting from Childhood Sweethearts-Chapter 393 - Don’t Mess It Up!

Ao Jin was momentarily stunned before letting out a chuckle. “I didn’t expect such a trivial matter to alarm your esteemed establishment.”

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“Enough with the useless nonsense. I ask, you answer!” The woman wearing a cat-shaped mask stepped forward, her voice cold. “We have already obtained Her Majesty’s permission to act against you at any time. Don’t think that just because there are only two of us, we wouldn’t dare take your life.”

Ao Jin: “...”

If they were somewhere else, he naturally wouldn’t be afraid.

After all, he had the Eastern Sea Dragon Palace behind him, and as a prince of the Eastern Sea, anyone who wanted to harm him had to consider the power he represented. His status alone allowed him to act with impunity in most places.

But things were different in the Northern Sea.

Here, he truly had a real chance of dying.

That Dragon Empress, in a way, was a complete lunatic. She never considered diplomatic consequences.

If she had sufficient reason, it didn’t matter who the target was—she would kill without hesitation.

Ao Jin clearly remembered that a thousand years ago, a reckless prince from the Southern Sea had come to the Northern Sea.

That fool had dared to speak of marrying the Dragon Empress. The next day, he was dead.

And the old Dragon King of the Southern Sea hadn’t dared to utter a single word, not even requesting his son’s corpse back.

Rumor had it the Dragon Empress fed him to the fish.

“This is your last chance to answer. What exactly were you fishing for in the Ten Thousand Fish Lake of Coral Sea?” the cat-masked woman asked coldly.

Ao Jin shook his head. “I wasn’t fishing for anything special. It’s just that the Ten Thousand Fish Lake contains a species called the Ink-Gold Fish. These fish are incredibly valuable and can only be lured with literary aura as bait.

At the time, I happened to encounter some scholars from the White Deer Academy, so I secretly drew in their literary aura to use as bait for the fish.

I admit, this method was a bit unethical, but it was for the sake of an opportunity—nothing could be done about that. And besides, they only lost a little literary aura, something they could restore in just a few days.

But I failed. And I never expected that my little attempt would alarm you all.”

The two masked women exchanged glances.

“You’d better be telling the truth,” the fox-masked woman warned before turning away with her companion.

Now that he had given an explanation, they needed to investigate further and report to the Dragon Empress.

Although they weren’t afraid of killing him, they would rather not if it wasn’t necessary. No matter what, he was still the son of the Eastern Sea Dragon King.

And there was no point in pressing him further.

If Ao Jin had truly decided not to tell the truth, he could just stick to this story, and there would be no way to force more information out of him.

Only if their investigation uncovered discrepancies would they bring evidence against him—that would be the right time to act.

The two women disappeared into the night.

Ao Jin sat back down, continuing to drink his wine.

Half an hour later, a figure appeared in the courtyard.

Ao Jin sighed, picked up another cup, and poured some wine.

“You really have impeccable timing. If you had come a little earlier, you would’ve run into those two from the Dragon Palace.

If that had happened, I wouldn’t just be struggling to explain myself—I’d probably have to leave my life behind as well.”

The shadow dispersed, revealing a man who sat down across from Ao Jin. “That just means the heavens are looking out for you. You’re not so easy to kill.”

“What about the fish?” the shadowy figure asked.

Ao Jin laughed and shook his head. “The fish? Gone!”

Thinking about it made him even more frustrated. “The Dragon Palace didn’t know about our plan—otherwise, they would’ve come for us already.

But who would have thought that my plan would be discovered by that Xu Ming from the Wu Kingdom?

He was lurking around me the whole time, constantly sabotaging things.

That fish never even had a chance to be caught.”

The man in black rubbed his fingers. “Who is this Xu Ming?”

Ao Jin sighed. “Who else? The top scholar of the Wu Kingdom. The one who wrote, ‘The most fleeting thing in this mortal world,

Is youth leaving the mirror, flowers parting from the trees.’”

The man in black frowned. “How did he learn about our plan?”

Ao Jin chuckled. “That, I don’t know. Logically speaking, there’s no way Xu Ming should have known. Even if there was a traitor leaking our plans, they wouldn’t have gone to a Wu Kingdom man.”

The man in black nodded. “Don’t worry. Very few people knew about this plan, and it was classified as top secret. There’s no way a traitor could have leaked it. What did the Dragon Palace say?”

Ao Jin shook his head. “What else could they say? No matter how crazy that Dragon Empress is, she can’t kill me without evidence.

I told them I was after the Ink-Gold Fish, and when they investigate, they’ll find exactly that—nothing more.

As for the fish we actually needed, they won’t be able to find it. Not unless the Dragon Empress personally gets involved.

But with her personality, what does she care about besides that old lover of hers who vanished millennia ago?

The real problem is our plan. Without that fish, everything falls apart.”

“That might not be the case.”

The man in black smiled and placed something on the table.

Ao Jin glanced at it, narrowing his eyes. “This is...?”

“A scale from a Mo Tian Fish,” the man in black replied.

Ao Jin stared at him in shock. “How did you get this?”

The man in black chuckled. “The Mo Tian Fish is rare, but it doesn’t only exist in the Northern Sea.”

A sudden realization flashed in Ao Jin’s eyes as he looked at the man in black in surprise. “Don’t tell me... you went to the End Mountain of the Demon Kingdom?”

“Exactly.”

The man in black nodded.

“We couldn’t afford to put all our eggs in one basket, so we made preparations on multiple fronts. We had people go to the End Mountain long ago.”

Ao Jin’s brows furrowed. “Are you insane? You actually made a deal with the End Mountain?”

“Calm down. In many situations, you have to give something up to gain something greater.

Don’t worry—this was a win-win for both sides. Everyone got what they wanted.”

The man in black fixed Ao Jin with a firm gaze. “Everything is ready now.

Don’t screw this up.”